Saturday, July 14, 2012

Yeang is an architect of some renown. These dictates and questions are formed from his early PhD work at Cambridge University where he studied how ecological design and Eco-aesthetic principles could be combined in the built environments. dh

A. WHAT IS THE INTENTION OF THE DESIGN?

1. What are the reasons for this particular design?

2. Determine the amount of environmental integration that can
be achieved in the design.

3. Evaluate the ecological and settlement history of the
site

4. Inventory the designed system’s ecosystem and built
infrastructure

5. Delineate the designed system’s boundary as a human-made
or composite ecosystem

6. Design to balance the biotic and abiotic components of
the designed system

7. Design to improve and to create new ecological linkages

8. Design to reduce the footprint of the built environment
on the ecology of the locality

B. THE DESIGN PROCESS

9. Design to reduce the consequences of the various modes of
transportation and the provision of access and vehicular parking for the
designed system

10. Design to integrate with the wider planning context and
infrastructure of the local bioregion

11. Design for improved internal comfort conditions in the
built environment

12. Design to optimize all passive-mode (or bioclimatic
design) options in the designed system

13. Design to optimize all mixed-mode options in the
designed systems with partial use of renewable resources of energy and as
low-energy design in relation to climate of the locality

14. Design to optimize all full-mode options in the designed
system in relation to the climate of the locality

15. Design to internally integrate biomass with the designed
system’s inorganic mass (ex. by means of internal landscaping, improved indoor
air quality, etc.)

16. Design for water conservation, recycling, harvesting,
etc.

17. Design for wastewater and sewage treatment and recycling
systems

18. Design for food production and independence

19. Design the built system’s use of materials to minimize
waste based on the analogy with the recycling properties of the ecosystem

20. Design for vertical and horizontal integration

21. Design to reduce light and noise pollution of the
ecosystem

C.THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

22. Designing the built environment as the transient
management of materials and energy input flows

23. Designing to conserve the use of non-renewable energy
and material resources

24. Design for the management of outputs from the built
environment and their integration with the natural environment

25. Design the building over its lifecycle from the source
to reintegration

26. Design using environmentally benign materials, furniture,
fittings, equipment, and products that can be continually recycled, reused, and
reintegrated

27. Design to reduce the use of ecosystem and biospheric
services and impacts on the shared global environment (systemic integration)

D. FINAL ASSESSMENT

28. Reassess the overall design of the entire system in its
totality for the level of environmental integration over its lifecycle

Yeang’s single minded pursuit of ecodesign and ecomasterplanning and
their aesthetics for close to four decades have influenced countless
architects and professionals whose work impinges on the environment not
just in the way they approach design, planning and the natural
environment but aesthetically (greatly encouraged by his former PhD
Supervisor at Cambridge University, Professor John Frazer) – in asking
what a green building and masterplan should look like?

What is particularly motivating in Yeang's work is this original eco
aesthetic, as an aspect of ecodesign that is close to Yeang’s heart.
Yeangs contends that an ecological architecture should look natural and
green, making nature and its processes visible in the biointegration of
the synthetic physical components of building with the ecology of the
land. Much of existent architecture and masterplans elsewhere that lay
claim to be green are simply commonly-styled or iconically-styled
builtforms stuffed internally with ecoengineering gadgetry. Yeang
contends that an ecoarhitecture and an ecocity should look 'alive' like a
living system, not 'de-natured', and not be nor look predominantly
inorganic, artificial and synthetic. Yeang asserts that ecoarchitecture
and ecomasterplans demand their own 'style'. It is this green
ecoaesthetic in Yeang's architecture that brought considerable
international attention to his work and to his selection as architect of
choice.

This work in a relentless pursuit of an original biointegrated
'ecological aesthetic' may be Yeang’s other significant contribution to
this field.

Because ecodesign in the 1970s did not have the benefit of prior
research or theoretical models and frameworks, Yeang early years
involved doing empirical research, experimental design, and
investigative studies of ecological processes that he could replicate or
mimic in his humanmade structures. His early research work is evident
in several of his key books including, Designing with Nature
(McGraw-Hill, 1995) (see above), The Skyscraper, Bioclimatically
Considered: A Design Primer (John Wiley & Sons, 1997), The Green
Skyscraper: The Basis for Designing Sustainable Intensive Buildings
(Prestel, 1999), Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design (John Wiley
& Sons, 2006), Eco-Masterplanning (John Wiley & Sons, 2009), Eco
Design Dictionary (an Illustrated Reference with co-author Lillian Woo
(Taylor and Francis, 2009)). He is currently researching for a
monograph, Ecomimesis: Bases for Designing the Built Environment, on the
mimicry of the ecological properties and attributes of ecosystems
(Taylor and Francis).

July APDC Course Blog

Class Authors (APDC Attendees) are encouraged to place comments, materials, insights, and discoveries on this blog. This central sharing resource will be used to pull information into designs and to share information and resources.

Please publish entries an comment as we carry the conversation deeper into the issues an solutions we discover. This is a private blog except for those you invite by giving them the URL. See you on the 29th!